From Home, For The Holidays
From Home, For The Holidays
Mid-Missourians Join Forces To Send Care Packages To The Troops
By Kathy Casteel
Sometimes, it’s the little things that can make such a big difference.
Imagine being away from home for the holidays. No silver bells, no roasting chestnuts, no mistletoe. People are shooting at you. Spartan living conditions couldn’t be any less homey and the good ol’ U.S.A. seems like a million miles away.
And then, like a bolt out of the blue, a package arrives, delivering a cornucopia of simple amenities to make life just a little bit easier to bear in your remote corner of Far, Far Away. More importantly, it carries a message: somebody cares.
“The timing always seems to be good for getting a care package from home,” says Army National Guard Staff Sgt. James Stafford. “You’re there for a year-long deployment and just about the time you start thinking, ‘This sucks,’ you get a package. Then you’re thinking, ‘Wow! There are actually people back home who care about what I’m doing here.’
“It definitely brightens your day.”
Stafford, who spent a year deployed in Kosovo in 2000, enjoyed those caring efforts from home so much that he is now organizing area collections and advising other groups who want to send treats to the troops. Currently a Missouri National Guard recruiter in Columbia, Stafford is working with Boonville Cares For The Troops, a communitywide effort in Boonville, as well as lending an advisory hand to Tigers 4 Troops, an offshoot of the Student Union Program Board at the University of Missouri.
Boonville Cares
Since mid-October, Boonville Cares For The Troops has been collecting items in 22 barrels posted around town. Stafford empties the barrels periodically and stores the growing bounty in the Boonville armory to await assembly into Christmas care packages that will be shipped in early December to U.S. troops stationed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo. On Dec. 6, volunteers will gather at the armory to pack the 10-by-13-by-6-inch boxes, adding an extra loving touch with handmade Christmas cards and letters from Boonville schoolchildren.
Anyone is welcome to come help assemble the care packages on Dec. 6.
“Last time we did this, in July, it was a big day,” Stafford says. “We had a barbecue for the workers and it was very festive. We sorted the items into piles and set up an assembly line. So many people showed up to help that we put together 101 boxes and were done by noon.”
The July collection was Boonville’s first community effort to send care packages to the troops. Stafford’s efforts there caught fire when he met Sheila Payne, a mother still mourning the death of her son, Matthew, a Marine reservist who was killed in an industrial accident in 2005, one day before he was to report for active duty.
Payne, who works at Bank of America, was more than willing to help out when Stafford suggested that the Boonville branch of Bank of America adopt some Missouri-based troops deployed overseas. The bank set up an account for Boonville Cares For The Troops and gave its blessing for Payne to spend time working with the group.
“I just wanted to let them know that we’re here for them,” says Payne with a catch in her soft Kentucky accent. “We want them to know that we love them and miss them.”
Tiger Loving Care
In Columbia, the mantel has been assumed enthusiastically by a self-described “Air Force brat” who wants to say “thank you” to the troops with a touch of Show-Me pride. Student Union Program Board president Jenny Wade, a graduate student in the MU School of Health Professions, started Tigers 4 Troops two years ago with her friend Blair McClain, whose then-fiancé, Charles, was stationed in Iraq. The group adopted McClain’s Army platoon and began collecting items to send overseas.
“It just grew from there,” Wade says. “We filled 27 boxes of varying sizes with things that would bring a bit of home to the soldiers over there.”
Blair and Charles married when he returned from his tour of duty and they moved on to Charles’ next military posting. Wade continues her efforts here through the program board’s Tiger Loving Care, a student committee dedicated to making the Columbia campus a warmer, more inviting place to go to school.
“It’s one of those endeavors that Blair and I felt passionate about,” she says. “My dad was in the Air Force for 25 years. I’m very proud of my family’s military connection and very passionate about the veterans.”
Appropriately, Tigers 4 Troops kicked off its collection drive on Veterans Day, to benefit the 442nd LRS Air Force Reserve unit that has been serving in Iraq. Donations will be accepted until Dec. 12 on campus at the Memorial Union reservations desk, the programming board office at S-106 Memorial Union and ROTC headquarters at Crowder Hall. Off-campus donations may be brought to Gerbes Supermarket on West Broadway. Care packages will be boxed up and shipped as items come in; students are eyeing a mid-December deadline to finish the project.
The Tigers 4 Troops care packages will not be traveling overseas this year, Wade says. The recipients in the 442nd will be on leave and newly arrived stateside.
“People don’t realize that when a soldier returns from overseas duty, they don’t just automatically get all the things they’ve been deprived of while they were serving overseas,” Wade says. “These packages will be full of the comforts of home, to help them enjoy their leave and get back on their feet.”
TLC director Brad Fischer has also been soliciting organizational and business support for the students’ care-package project.
“We want to show the unit just how much Columbia appreciates their service,” Fischer says. “I think it’s important to show our troops that we appreciate what they have sacrificed in service to our country.”
Giving Back
Although the post office provides the care-package shipping boxes free of charge, there is a flat rate of about $10 per box to ship each package to the troops. Monetary donations to alleviate shipping costs are just as welcome as donations to the package contents.
To help out with shipping, send checks payable to:
Boonville Cares For The Troops
c/o Bank of America
412 Main St.
Boonville MO 65233
Checks for Boonville Cares For The Troops may also be sent to the attention of SSG James Stafford at the Columbia National Guard Armory, 5151 Roger I. Wilson Drive, Columbia MO 65202, or the Boonville armory at 1306 Locust St., Boonville MO 65233.
To help Tigers 4 Troops, make the check payable to the University of Missouri and note Tigers 4 Troops in the memo line. Mail monetary donations to:
Tigers 4 Troops
Student Union Programming Board
S106 Memorial Union
Columbia MO 65201
For further information on Tigers 4 Troops, or to arrange pickup of donations, contact Brad Fischer at 240-475-4880.
Groups that would like to organize their own care-package collection drives may contact Staff Sgt. James Stafford at the Columbia armory for tips and guidelines to help smooth the process. Contact Stafford at 314-306-4623.
A Soldier’s Wish List
The No. 1 item on every soldier’s wish list is batteries, says Sgt. James Stafford.
“Lots of batteries,” he says. “When you’re in the field, everything is battery-powered, so they go through a lot.”
Stafford has a list of suggested items to place in care packages. The 10-by-13-inch shipping boxes are 6 inches deep, “and you can get a lot of stuff in each one,” he says.
“Another really great thing is every package touches about three or four troops,” Stafford says. “We all share what we get, so your gift goes even further.”
Care Package Items
Sports drinks
Spices (onion powder, all spice, etc.)
Powdered Gatorade
Tea bags
Kool-Aid (pre sweetened)
Single-serving bagged chips
Individual boxes of cereal
Crackers & Easy Cheese
Granola bars or nutrition bars
Beef jerky
Oatmeal
Nuts
Popcorn balls
Instant soup
Instant coffee
Marshmallows
Fast-food condiments (ketchup, hot sauce, mustard, etc.)
Dried fruit
Practical Items
Baby wipes
Razors, shaving cream
After shave lotion
Liquid hand sanitizer
Mouth wash
Shampoo, conditioner
Deodorant
Nail clippers
Cotton swabs or cotton balls
T-shirts & underwear
Towels
ChapStick
Sun block
Lotion
Tylenol, ibuprofen, etc.
Sewing kit
Hand-held or clip-on fan
Dental floss
Travel alarm
Baby powder
Desitin
Foot powder
Combs/brushes
Breath mints
Contact lens cleaner
Eye drops
Shoe insole cushions
Plastic storage bags
Feminine products
*Flea collars
Just For Fun
Stress ball
Books, magazines, word puzzles, etc.
AA or AAA batteries
Disposable cameras
Yo-Yo
Journals
Jump rope
Frisbees, Hackie Sacks
Postcards
Small flashlight
Portable CD player
Joke or comic books
Earphones
Mini-fans
Games, cards, etc.
Balloons
Make a CD with different songs
It’s A Small World:
A Soldier Says ‘Thanks’
“Thanks for the care package. … I was surprised to get mail from Locust Street in Boonville MO. I grew up on Spring Street so I was all over that neighborhood. Thank you.”
- SSG Lloyd Heckman